1412 Picking up the Press Thread

Jay Rosen has reopened the thread on Austin Bay's post at his site. I know, I know. It's very confusing. But as near as I can tell from Neo-Neocon and Neuro-Conservative, Rosen invited Bay to provide some advice on how the Bush administration could be more open to the press. He wanted to start a dialog (in left-speak that means he wanted to change minds). Rosen got mad at the commentors, even though most of the 35,000 words were really pretty reasonable and well thought out. In academe (which is where I come from) we believe strongly that information or discussion will CHANGE minds. My entire career was built on that! Now when have you EVER changed someone's mind by anything you wrote or said? It's possible you added a missing piece, but you didn't change it. It's usually cummulative based on many life experiences AND bits of outside information. And it isn't just on politics, it could be anything--health, relationships, parenting, religion, etc. My story, for instance.

So here's some comments on the new thread. Not much heat or light here. I have no idea who Mr. Anderson is, his age or profession. Mark Anderson writes at http://poorrichardsalmanac.blogspot.com/ and disregards copyright the way he posts the whole shooting match on his site. These are a few of his "ho-hum why have you bothered and wasted my time" comments. If I were Mr. Rosen, I'd be more distressed by this attitude:

“But at the end of the day, he [Austin Bay] is a man who makes his living as a professional right-wing media operative. “

“every word Bay has to say on your blog is toward the end of advancing the same agenda Hughes and Hewitt “

“What makes Bay more than a super neo-con troll on steroids presenting his design for full-spectrum neo-con media dominance aside from his having better manners? “

“Why do you see Bay's PR strategy as a serious discussion about the future of the press and your commenters [sic] affirmation of the bias Bay self-consciously advances in his post--in precisely the manner he intended to elicit by what he wrote--as dumb bias discourse? “

“Wasting my time reading a respectful and articulate neo-con plan for full-spectrum neo-con media dominance that is not as immediately self-destructive and reality-challenged as Karl Rove's totalitarian approach bores me. . .”

“Austin Bay's bias rant makes me feel dumber. Why do you post it? Why aren't you bored by it? Being annoyed with the commenters' [sic] bias-oriented responses to your posting Austin Bay's bias rant is like being annoyed that Yankees fans show up for Yankees games.” [I think I need to diagram this sentence.]

Jay Rosen conceived a nice religion page called The Revealer, a daily review. . . which I used to read. Now written by Jeff Sharlett. But the little asides from the writers were just too much. Too much editorializing to be "news." Sort of Maureen Dowd with hat and gloves and sensible shoes, but you got the message. Like this pithy entry to Shalett's comments on the Pat Robertson flap:

"Olsen [Christianity Today] adds to the drumbeat of evangelical leaders denouncing Robertson's assassination fascination, with links to denunciations (read: distancing) from evangelical bigs such as Os Guiness, Al Mohler, and Marvin Olasky, coiner of "compassionate conservatism," who, in so many words, suggests that Robertson is a doddering old fool. . ." Jeff Sharlett [Warning: this is a tricky site to navigate; watch your clicks--I'm not even positive Sharlett is the author] Almost drips with scorn doesn't it, as "drumbeat of denounciations" gets downgraded in an aside, like a hurricane, to "distancing" and a compassionate conservative almost says "doddering old fool [he didn't]."

1411 LexisNexis vs. AlterNet

Ever wonder where the left comes up with its skewed views of reality? Is there even a candle flickering down in their data mine? Check out TomeBoy's lastest essay. To be fair, Mr. Nellis (the discussion is about someone discussing him) isn't exactly your namby-pamby left-winger; he's an anarchist near as I can tell, and I think he described himself that way. I try really hard to avoid his repetitive tirades at LISNews.com. Perhaps I misjudge. There is no evidence he is a librarian, so why should I care? Here's his "welcome" at his website:

"In fact, should any of the material on my site offend you, you are probably a religious extremist. In that case, I invite you to invoke the biblical injunction and pluck your eyes out. Frankly, I'd pay good money to see that."

Is that junior high or what?

1410 The Kitty Trifecta

She'd meowed and threw herself against the living room door from 4-5 a.m. Always hungry. But 5 minutes after downing her breakfast, she urped it up on the kitchen floor. Well, at least it's not carpet, I thought. But when I saw it was only undigested cat food, I knew there would be more. NO HAIR BALL. While cleaning that up, I heard her in the living room, so I rushed in there and cleaned up the rest of the breakfast. NO HAIR BALL. While I was cleaning that up, she made a bee line for the guest room, where I snatched her in mid-barf, so the hair ball came up in the hall. Then she headed for the kitty-litter where after doing her business she started to throw up again. But she doesn't like to do that in the litter box, so she jumped out and threw up on the little rug by the back door. By this time, I'd cleaned up in 5 places, counting the saliva puddles. Then to add to the barfing and pooping, she decided to add newsprint. She noticed yesterday's Wall Street under the kitchen table lamp and four times had to be removed from it. Actually, I just finally hid the newspaper since she didn't seem to catch on.
I've posted this before, but it's a favorite
Here's a really great site with another kitty trifecta story and great photos. I can't imagine what their vet, cat food, and broadband bills must add up to. Music, videos, professional design, etc. Don't miss the Scrungy story.

1409 When you let Blogger correct your typos you'll meet your Waterloo

One good reason to write in wp and paste into the blogger.com posting window is the spell check. It is hilarious. Some times I use it just for a morning laugh. It doesn't recognize the word "blog," for instance. Here's some gems from my Vioxx article:


"The Voice case involved a man who had undiagnosed erratum and died. "The pathologist who performed Ernst's autopsy testified during the trial that a blood clot likely caused the erratum and a subsequent fatal heart attack. . .

Well, let me weigh-in with something that IS 100% certain. I've had erratum all my life and it was NEVER found until 1996 when feeling light-headed, I walked a mile to the clinic from my office at OSI and was immediately put in a wheelchair and pushed through a construction zone to the emergency room and admitted. . .

After several days of testing at the OSI Hospital the diagnosis was "adiabatic waterloo fibrillation." . . .

It was zapped in 2002, and I went on new and different meads including comedian, because although the circuit was gone, the pulmonary veins around my heart didn't know the ship had left the dock and continued to flutter and cause problems. They needed to be retrained, and the meads were for that. About 18 months ago those meads (developed by a pharmaceutical company), were discontinued."

You're better off not to look--adiabatic waterloo indeed!

1408 The heart breaks

“The heart breaks for everyone who lost relatives and friends on September 11, as it does for the relatives of the war dead and wounded, as it does for the sons of Paul Wellstone. It does not break for MoveOn.org, Maureen Dowd, and Gail Sheehy, who have not been heartbroken, except by a string of election reverses, and are using the anguish of other people in an effort to turn them around.”

"AFTER THE JERSEY GIRLS, there was nowhere to go but to "Mother Sheehan,"* who, like the Wellstone Memorial, may be about to implode. In her case, her cover as Everymom is more easily broken, as her connection to the Loony Left is far more explicit, and her tongue is a lot less controlled. You might not know it from her televised interviews (where she seems well coached by the expensive media mavens retained by MoveOn.org), but the Internet is alive with her unscripted sayings, and they make quite a collection. To anyone's knowledge, none of the Jersey Girls or members of Peaceful Tomorrows has appeared on a program with Lynne Stewart, the convicted lawyer and friend to Islamic terrorists, and proclaimed her a personal heroine. None has ever said anything like this to a public gathering: "We have no constitution. We're the only country with no checks and balances. We want our country back if we have to impeach George Bush down to the person who picks up the dog s--in Washington. Let George Bush send his two little party animals to die in Iraq." "
Read the whole article by Noemi Emery

Seen at Bookworm

1407 How anti-war people kill

In the early 1980s I worked for a young Jewish woman on a JTPA (Job Training Partnership Act) Grant. She was a Republican and I was a Democrat, but that didn't bother either one of us because we had certain things in common--she was my aerobics instructor and I was accustomed to following her orders. I can't remember exactly what my job title was--something about program--but basically I wrote government documents. I even wrote speeches for her boss (later killed in an airplane crash). It was one of the best jobs I ever had, and she was an outstanding boss.

Her family comes to mind when I hear and see the anti-war protestors, all those dear folk who want to "bring the troops home" because "Bush lied." The naive do-gooders who light candles and string origami birds to take down to the lakefront on hot summer nights. The information that led us into this war was disseminated in the 1990s--I've seen John Kerry and John Edwards and Bill Clinton's names attached to WMD memos. But, that's not as important to me (if it was misinformation in 2002, it was misinformation in 1999) as the number of lives President Bush has saved and the number he as liberated from tyranny.

The protests bring to my mind those of the 1930s--before my time, of course. But I love old journals, and our public library had old bound volumes of Life, Look and Time, and the university too had acres of old musty journals, some unabashedly socialist and communist. It's possible they are gone now--replaced by unbrowsable digital formats where the agonized faces of those fleeing Hitler long before the US entered the war aren't so moving.

"Student organizing was one of the American Left's most successful areas of political activity during the Great Depression. Under the leadership of Communist and Socialist undergraduates, the campus activists of the 1930s built the first mass student protest movement in American history. During its peak years, from spring 1936 to spring 1939, the movement mobilized at least 500,000 collegians (about half of the American student body) in annual one-hour strikes against war. The movement also organized students on behalf of an extensive reform agenda, which included federal aid to education, government job programs for youth, abolition of the compulsory Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC), academic freedom, racial equality, and collective bargaining rights." Encyc. of American Left

Yes, "we" Americans knew what was going on--our press was covering it, but our anti-war forces were very powerful. Just like today. Our politicians were timid and concerned about their legacies. Just like today. We all know what is behind their protests, don't we? Sort of a self-hatred, isn't it? Hitler was marching into poor little Poland the month I was born. I'm sure my 27 year old mom read about it in the newspapers as she wondered what was going to happen to her little brood (then three), because you see, everyone knew. It was no secret.

Fast forward to my 1983 job and my great boss. She told me one time that her in-laws had each lost four children and a spouse in Nazi death camps. They met (widowed and childless) after the war in a camp awaiting relocation to the United States. They married, resettled here, started a new life and had two more children. They have a lot to be thankful for, no thanks to the anti-war protesters of the 1930s.

And so I think about those two brave people (I met them once at their grandson's bris) when you light your protest candle.

1406 What I haven't seen this summer

Yesterday I made a few notes on what I hadn't seen this summer:

• a sunset
• a sunrise
• a live skunk in our yard
• a dead skunk on the highway
• a deer in my head lights
• a teen-age couple under the street light
• the left side of 140 lbs.
• a restaurant outside the gates
• a new litter of feral kittens
• Wall Street Journal

But I'm happy to say that last night we walked down to the dock and with about 30 other people watched a gorgeous sunset. We took along the binoculars and passed them around. Because it is week 9, I think we may have been the youngest folks watching.

Then on my way home from the grocery story I noticed a slight whif of skunk, but nothing like most years. I recognize the little feral kittens from last year's batch--probably someone has captured them and had them neutered. And today I bought a Wall Street Journal.

What I have seen this summer:

• the new director becoming more comfortable and relaxed in his job
• plein air painters
• a huge interest in landscaping and home floral beds (new director's influence)
• large crowds at the lakefront worship service on Sunday
• soaring real estate prices--$800,000 on the lakefront, and $300-600,000 in our neighborhood
• growing interest in community theater
• enormous increase and interest in the arts and crafts offerings
• a new and thriving coffee shop

Way to go, Lakesiders.

Lakeside, Ohio

1405 Fibonacci creator

Two years ago during the great blackout I was attending a class taught by Lakeside's musician in residence, Calvin Taylor. He'd spent a lot of time talking about Fibonacci. Actually, I remember nothing except the name, but it was very interesting at the time and I have my notes someplace. But I recall it was one more reason to believe in a Creator, although I doubt that it came up. Anyway, while visiting and admiring the wallpaper at Gates of Vienna, I saw a little icon for Custom Fibonacci Spirals. Cool.

"The Fibonacci series appears in the foundation of aspects of art, beauty and life. Even music has a foundation in the series, as:
There are 13 notes in the span of any note through its octave.
A scale is comprised of 8 notes, of which the
5th and 3rd notes create the basic foundation of all chords, and are based on whole tone which is
2 steps from the root tone, that is the
1st note of the scale. The Golden Number

"On many plants, the number of petals is a Fibonacci number:
buttercups have 5 petals; lilies and iris have 3 petals; some delphiniums have 8; corn marigolds have 13 petals; some asters have 21 whereas daisies can be found with 34, 55 or even 89 petals." Rabbits, bees, flowers, etc.

Fibonacci series in flowers






God is so good!

1404 New Conservative Librarian

So far, 4/5 of Paul's posts have been right of center (only has 5 I think) which could just push me off the podium to receive Walt's award as the only "right-wing" librarian blogger (there are no left-wing, according to Walt, which Paul's first post certainly proves untrue). He has a very high "conversation" rate with his readers. Stay tuned for more good things from Corrigenda. And I'm hoping he is writing under a pseudonym because he's in shark territory, professionally speaking.

He has an interesting post on second graders reading the latest Harry Potter book, which he thinks is too dark and too teen for a 7 year old. Obviously Mom bought the kid the book, but I don't think Paul approves.

I can't remember exactly what I was reading in second grade--Little House on the prairie series I think. And all the horse and dog stories I could find. Our town library was pretty small and the hours were limited--the librarian didn't want the farmers to get the books dirty. Now there's a switch!

1403 Reminder about the offset

Welcome Jay Rosen readers About eleven have stopped over here to see what an old lady could possibly say. But while I have your attention, here's a public service announcement.

Let me add something that has nothing to do with freedom of the press or a "conversation" between the old media and the new media. I noticed Prof. Rosen is writing at an .edu site, so I'm thinking some of his readers may be from academe, from which I'm retired. He and his readers may have teacher or public employee pension plans. Here's a reminder to start up the "conversation" about private retirement accounts again:

I am faculty emeritus (Ohio State University). We already have President Bush's retirement plan at our house (at least as I understand it): we have a mix of Social Security, private 401k, SEP IRA, a teacher's annuity (403b), a teacher's pension and miscellaneous IRA accounts and savings our executor will have to figure out someday. Because a teacher's pension is considered a government plan, I am not eligible for Social Security--not mine from when I worked in the private sector and not the wife's portion of my husband's. This is called a government offset.

So, just in case you thought you'd "double dip," you won't. OK, as you were.

1402 Amen! shouted the lawyers

Of course. They get 1/3 of the Vioxx settlement. Although I know it will be appealed.

And let's hope those lawyers will personally never need a life changing, disease fighting drug or technology developed by the U.S. pharmaceutical industry. It is a very risky area to invest in--as a retiree, I'll probably look for something safer, something less identified with miracles that can never backfire.

The Vioxx case involved a man who had undiagnosed arrhythmia and died. "The pathologist who performed Ernst's autopsy testified during the trial that a blood clot likely caused the arrhythmia and a subsequent fatal heart attack. The pathologist could not offer 100% certainty that there was a blood clot (not found during the autopsy) or heart attack. The jury demonstrated by its verdict that it believed the theory that a blood clot caused the arrhythmia and that Merck and Vioxx were liable."

Well, let me weigh-in with something that IS 100% certain. I've had arrhythmia all my life and it was NEVER found until 1996 when feeling light-headed, I walked a mile to the clinic from my office at OSU and was immediately put in a wheelchair and pushed through a construction zone to the emergency room and admitted. In order to be diagnosed, you have to be having an episode during a doctor's visit. That was my third or fourth incident that day and I guess I was just tired of grabbing a wall every time I stood up. I'd never reported it because I've only been me, and I assumed everyone's heart raced after eating peanut butter, or remembering an auto accident, or chatting in a nice restaurant, or walking into the stacks to reshelve an armload of journals. I thought the room went black for everyone when changing positions suddenly. It was never picked up in check-ups, in pregnancy and labor, or in my only surgery.

After several days of testing at the OSU Hospital the diagnosis was "idiopathic atrial fibrillation." That means, "we don't know why you have a heart rate that some times is 50 and sometimes is 300." But they didn't even tell me the worst part. A nurse friend visited me in the hospital and told me I could have died any number of times, or had a serious stroke. The blood pools, then builds up and splashes on through--sometimes in a clot.

After 5 years of medications to control my heart rate, and a generation of heart research and new technology (paid for by investors and inventors in our health care companies), it was determined I had an extra circuit in my heart, fluttering there trying to join the party redirecting the electrical impulses to nowhere land. It was zapped in 2002, and I went on new and different meds including coumadin, because although the circuit was gone, the pulmonary veins around my heart didn't know the ship had left the dock and continued to flutter and cause problems. They needed to be retrained, and the meds were for that. About 18 months ago those meds (developed by a pharmaceutical company), were discontinued.

Jane Galt and Dr. Sanity comment.

1401 The view of Kelley's Island

We can see Kelley's Island from Lakeside. We think being able to see several islands is what makes our view here so lovely. I've been there maybe three or four times in the last 35 years--by ferry, by speed boat, and encircling it on cruises. Our friends Matt and Megan got married on a chartered cruise, and because they own a cottage on Kelley's we cruised by their place.

There was a feature story in the Plain Dealer supplement a few weeks ago that pointed out the following:

1. It is quieter than South Bass Island. Well, isn't every place?
2. It is on the National Historic Register of Historic Places.
3. It is 12 miles from Sandusky, Ohio.
4. It is the largest American Island in Lake Erie.
5. It has 370 year around residents, and 1,500 in the summer.
6. It's a big rock with dirt on it--you may have to import more dirt before you build there.
7. There are no building codes on Kelley's.
8. 600-700 acres of its 2,400 are state-owned park.
9. It has both glacial grooves and ancient pictographs.
10. It's prettiest viewed from the bottom of our street on a clear day with binoculars. (Just kidding; this wasn't in the article.)

This is not me arriving at Kelley's, but I have sun glasses, a bra and a purse just like hers

1400 Catholic Blogs

Excuse me if I'm repeating myself, I've got about 1500 posts counting my other blogs here, here, here, here and here (library land, where there are no left-wing bloggers), and sometimes I lose my train of thought. Oh yes, St. Blog's Parish is an interesting stop. I'm not sure why I didn't see Vox Lauri there. She attends Our Lady of Liturgical Abuses, you know. Recently she wrote movingly about how those who serve often receive more than they give:

"I used to be a Minister of Care (someone who brings Holy Communion to Catholic patients) and when I was I got to meet many people who touched my heart. But one in particular was sent, I believe, from God. This particular patient was dying from cancer- though I did not know he was end stage- and obviously anxious. Our encounter was not memorable other than I recall a nurse phoning around the hospital because this patient missed me when I visited and wanted the Eucharist. I maybe visited him twice, fumbling through a little service I had to read haltingly from a book. The last time I went to visit him, I learned he had died that day. A few days later I looked up his obituary and found in the last few lines a thank you to all who had ministered to him at the hospital. A thank you he had to have placed specifically in his obit as I never met any of his family. He was blessing me, he was concluding his service to me."

Found her in the Parish Hall--Dressing with Dignity. Wow. I'll need to take another look. Looks a bit more my speed than the Anabaptist fashion pages I've found. The Islamic beach wear have even more coverage than the Amish. Good color and good protection from skin cancer. And she has a second blog.

There are also some helpful links in the parish hall for assists with blogging.

1399 Now, How Did I Know?

While we were doing up the dishes tonight, I told my husband that Pat Robertson would be the lead story on the national news which was due to come on in 20 minutes. We're watching ABC, and I was right.

I've only come across him occasionally on TV, but I know that when he has called for distributing food to the hungry or rebuilding damaged homes after storms or encouraging couples to stay married, the media have not rushed out to cover his words.

1398 Some one should write this book

She said it for 30 years, and finally wrote it herself, Seeing through paintings, (Yale University Press, 2000). And I had the opportunity to sit in her class this morning at the Rhein Center here at Lakeside. Rustin (Rusty) Levenson lives down the street from me in the summer, but this was my first chance to talk to her--had no idea she was in the art conservation business or that she was a classmate of Hilary Clinton (she didn't tell us, but I saw it on the Internet). Her photo has appeared in Vogue magazine--she was restoring Jackson Pollack's floor. She also wrote two chapters in Expert versus the object edited by attorney Ronald D. Spencer (Oxford, 2004). Here's her recommendation for Floridians with both art to protect and hurricanes on the way.

She provided many interesting anecdotes about her work restoring paintings, and how misinformed many art historians and critics have been in psychologizing the motives and attitudes of the artist based on colors, which have long since changed or faded since the artist's day. (Yellow disappears from green leaving blue trees; pink disappeared from the background of Iris.) She gave us a brief outline of the history of paints, including information on fillers, mediums, permanency, and toxicity of chemicals and compounds.

Tips: she uses brown madder and Prussian green to create black. She says she might use a commercial black once a year. (I like ultramarine blue with burnt sienna).
Has never used: cyan or magenta, the colors you see in your print cartridge.
Loves: Indian yellow--very hot.
Purchase: She likes Pearl Paint supplies in NY, for Golden acrylics.

I asked her if her field was dominated by women, and she thought that might be correct. The field requires art history and chemistry, then an apprenticeship, graduate school and an internship. There is more than enough work for all the professionals in the field. "The museum landscape is littered with paintings needing restoration."

Lakeside, Ohio, Rustin Levenson, art conservation

1397 What a hypocrite

This post has been updated.

Jay Rosen shuts down a thread on Bush's communication and press freedom because it doesn't go the way he wants. Huh?

"I'm embarrassed that this thread appeared at my weblog. I'm embarrassed that something I wrote and edited was the occasion for it. I embarrassed that the letters "edu" appear in the Web address at the top of this page, since most of this is the opposite of education. I'm embarrassed for having entertained, even for a second, the notion that Austin Bay, a Bush supporter and war veteran, might get a hearing for some of his warnings from those who agree with him on most things. . . Thread closed."

Noticed at Neo-Neocon. And as she points out, the comments weren't even unreasonable--just not his cup of tea.

Update: Now Neuro-Conservative pours over the entire post, reads and re-reads the comments, in which he finds very little hyperbole and well reasoned thought, and discovers Rosen restates the comments--inaccurately--in his own replies. Neuro: "In a comments thread of more than 35,000 words, Rosen could not find a single critical comment worthy of his standards?"

Update 2: To his credit, he has reopened this thread, but with much finger wagging, fault-finding and suggestions on what to post. Suggests that people who disgree reasonably with him are biased and getting dumber by not changing/reexamining their views of the media. Reminds me of a pastor we used to have when he'd tell us from the pulpit how and why we should be joyful. At least the finger part.

1396 What's good for the Bill is good for the Bush?

Peggy Noonan attempts to explain how the friendship between Presidents Clinton and Bush 41 is good for both of them.

"What does Democrat Bill Clinton get out of cultivating the Republican Bushes? He gets public approval from a man most of the country sees as personally upstanding. When Mr. Bush puts his arm around Mr. Clinton, he confers his rectitude. Democrats won't mind it, and independent voters will like it. In receiving the embrace of the patriarch of such a famously Republican family, Mr. Clinton looks like someone who is, by definition, nonradical, mainstream, not too unacceptably odd and grifter-ish. Big bonus: Mr. Clinton knows that when he receives Mr. Bush's affectionate approval, his wife, who will soon be running for president, also seems by extension to be receiving it. This is good for her. Both Clintons pick up some positive attention from on-the-ground Republicans. This is good too.

What does the elder Mr. Bush get out of it? He burnishes his reputation for personal generosity and a certain above-it-all nonpartisanship. He shows he's not narrow like a conservative, but national like a great leader. This has a spillover effect on his son, the incumbent president. The more his father embraces the foe, the more embracing the current President Bush looks. By publicly declaring his closeness with Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bush senior demonstrates a high minded interest in political comity and a rejection of mere party politics, unlike the low little people who are inspired by animus and always getting het up about their little issues. Would a former president Pat Buchanan hug a former president Clinton? Huh, go dream."

Noonan's Aug. 18 article still doesn't quite buy it.

1395 Stem cell research can use skin cells

Amy points to an interesting development reported in WaPo and other places.

"Scientists for the first time have turned ordinary skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells -- without having to use human eggs or make new human embryos in the process, as has always been required in the past, a Harvard research team announced yesterday.

The technique uses laboratory-grown human embryonic stem cells -- such as the ones that President Bush has already approved for use by federally funded researchers -- to "reprogram" the genes in a person's skin cell, turning that skin cell into an embryonic stem cell itself."

Reuse, recycle, renew.

1394 Walt and Meredith survey the blogosphere

Walt Crawford at the September 2005 Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large and Meredith Farkas at Information wants to be free have both completed and put forward their surveys of the librarian blogosphere. Combined, they remind me of the photographs my husband and I take on vacation--his are all buildings, mine are mostly people. Meredith is doing a part II, so stay tuned. Together Walt and Meredith give us a good album of blogging.

One statistic in her survey that I found interesting is that 77.4% of the librarian bloggers who responded to her questionnaire are in the 24-40 age range. This reflects what I’ve found in blogs in general. Finding older, more experienced workers in any field who understand what blogging is or are interested in promoting their own ideas to a public they can’t see, is difficult. I’m gradually adding to my “over 50” links (now that I’ve found more ladies to link to).

But strangest of all was Walt’s conclusion that I may be the only politically opinionated (“right-wing” he called me) librarian in blogger land. I didn't see any corresponding “left-wing” librarians in his 19 page, single space newsletter (this was on a quick read through--the “find“ feature didn‘t work in this document). This is amusing, considering the entire library profession lumped together would create another blue state--well, at least a county. Call me just a good information sleuth, but even I can determine what lever Library Dust pulls and I would have never gone into public mourning if I were still employed.


Because I remember those days when I was a liberal humanist, I know why and how this designation happened. When you are a liberal or a Democrat, you see yourself as just “us.” When you are a liberal, the antonym of “liberal” isn’t “conservative,” but right-wing. Everyone to the right of you is wrong headed, a threat to your personal space and freedoms, and “them.”

When you are a liberal you can’t see the bias of the major news media outlets because they reflect your own views and opinions; you don’t notice there are no Republican voices on the faculty of your institution or among the speakers invited to the campus; you don’t even notice when 70% of the campus never says anything out of fear for their jobs; you don’t see that there are almost no conservative books on the new book shelves of your public library and just assume they must all be awful because surely librarians wouldn’t tolerate bias in book selection; you believe that money will solve all social problems; and arriving at a goal or target is never enough--you must gird the loins of your cause with more tax money.

I’m far more liberal, in the true sense of the word, than many of the Democrats I know. I believe the “least of these” have value, therefore I’m against killing babies in the womb because they have physical anomalies or it's not a good time in mommy's career. I believe poor and minority children need a good education to succeed in a complex society and shouldn’t be left behind just because their parents can’t provide it. I believe there should be art and music in the schools--libraries are less critical.

I believe that Jesus Christ suffered and died so that every single person can be welcomed into the kingdom of God, but also believe those for whom he died have the right to say "no thanks" if they so desire. I believe that men and women are equal but not the same--in some areas women are superior. I believe in ordaining women and letting their skills and abilities and your needs determine if they should be in your pulpit.

I believe in meritocracy in the work place and don’t support quotas and affirmative action--they are demeaning to all we fought for. I do not support the death penalty. I was a strong pacifist through the end of the Vietnam war when our “anti-war movement” condemned millions of Vietnamese to death by pressuring our government to run out on them. The most shameful page in our history. I think the United Nations is a waste of time and money since it wasn’t able to save Rwandans or the Sudanese and it stole and scammed food from the Iraqis. It would still be investigating the cause of the tsunami and forming study groups if the US hadn't taken the lead. These lives mattered too.

I believe Israel is the only democracy in the Middle-East, the government/country with which we have the most in common. Anti-Israel fervor is veiled anti-semitism, in my opinion, and just a new version of "let's blame the Jews for all our problems." I believe we should stop propping up third world monarchies and feudal kingdoms. I think the war in Iraq will look like child’s play compared to the one coming--with China.

I support strong environmental laws that benefit everyone, not just a few disappearing rat and bird species. In fact, I believe our earth is God-created, organized and run. Therefore we should take care of it. I am a 6 day creationist and think it’s a waste of time to try to squeeze “intelligent design” into our theology or public school classrooms. ID doesn’t say much of anything. But evolution often looks Unintelligent too, and children need to be exposed to more than one view as the liberals used to believe.

Many of the librarian blogs I link to are “liberal”--but only if they are well-written, logical and informative. Walt has actually supplied the names of some I’ve never seen. But I’ve never seen mine linked on liberal blogs (some of that is ageism, not politics). A liberal today has severe torticollis and can turn only one direction--left.

All of this has been said in any one of my 1400+ blog entries (counting my other blogs). But mostly, I don’t talk about politics, but my life now, and even my former life as a librarian. I post my paintings, poetry, family photos, and opinions on health, sports, friendships, parenting, crime, education, and anything that catches my attention. I'm a typical information junkie. But because I am a neo-con (former Democrat who now supports Bush), Walt has selected me as "right-wing" poster-librarian.

But I’ll continue reading Cites and Insights even though I know Walt is a liberal and not a librarian. He’s passive aggressive and uses more parenthetical phrases to obfuscate than any preacher I’ve ever heard (although, maybe, perhaps, it seems to me, could be, interesting that). He’s not just a mild mannered, interested by-stander, but Walt is the best there is at presenting the technology stuff in a way I can understand. So even if he can’t spot a left-wing blogger, he’s still an excellent read and I appreciate all the time and effort he puts into his publications.

1393 Baby In the Hotel Dining Room

After church on the lakefront this morning, we walked over to the hotel for breakfast. Although my husband prefers Abigail's on 3rd St., I like being able to see the lake, and today it was glorious with a cool front having moved in last night. There were so many boats on the horizon that it looked like white caps.



A couple with a baby were at the next table. She appeared to be about 11 months old--just adorable and angelic. This brought back many memories. No matter how they might have behaved at home where they could reduce me to a screaming meltdown in minutes, my children were the model of good manners and upbringing in public places like restaurants and church services. Even during the teen years, I can't recall that they objected to being seen with their parents, and sometimes after church other parents would ask me how we pulled that off. (Please note: this means nothing in terms of what they'll do about church when on their own.)

Never in a restaurant did I need to threaten to take them out or clean up thrown or spilled food. We had a few tricks, but not many. We would call the restaurant before leaving the house and place our order so that our little guy with a 30 second attention span didn't have to wait too long. Also, we never went to fast food restaurants but always sit-down places with order-from-the-menu, not buffets. They learned early that eating out was "an event." Also, it didn't happen often because of our budget restrictions and I was a sahm.

One Sunday morning at Friendly's (chain owned by Hershey's) an immigrant who worked at another restaurant as a manager picked up our tab for us. He said in broken English that it was because we had such lovely, well-behaved children.

Here at Lakeside for years I would order one meal for the two children and two plates and then divide it. Even then they didn't always finish it (they were perhaps 7 and 8 years old). But on to my topic--the baby at the next table.

I like to order the $4.00 breakfast--2 eggs any style, hash browns, biscuit or toast, and sausage or bacon. It's a hearty breakfast and usually I don't finish it. Much to my shock, the baby's mother had ordered this meal for the little one. Not only was it way too much food (I knew who would finish it), but she couldn't use utensils and dug in with both fists. Oh yes, and a large glass of milk. Obviously, the news about obesity in children isn't getting out, or else, people think it only happens if you eat at fast food restaurants.